The Rat Fan Club
Book Reviews:
Fiction
by Debbie
“The Rat Lady”
Book Review: Walter, The
Story of a Rat
(This review appeared in the May 2007 issue of the Rat Report.)
I
received this book as a gift from my friend Marg
Smith. Walter, The Story of a Rat was written by
Barbara Wersba, illustrated by Donna Diamond. It has 60 pages and was published by
The
first sentence of the book tells us that Walter was a very old rat. In fact, he was much older than most
rats and he is also unusual because he can read. He doesn’t know why either of
these facts should be so. Walter has come to live in the home of Amanda
Pomeroy, an older woman who writes children’s books. He starts reading the books in her
library. He is very sad that most
humans hate rats or are scared of them.
When he discovers Miss Pomeroy’s books and begins to read them, he
is shocked that all the characters in her books are mice. He also discovers that other
children’s books often include mice, but not rats. “Why doesn’t anyone write
about rats?” he wonders.
Walter
decides to leave a note for Miss Pomeroy on her desk, and to his surprise and
delight, she writes him a note back.
They begin a regular correspondence and gradually form a friendship. One day Walter gets up the courage to
ask her why she writes about mice instead of rats. She tells Walter about some books that
do include rats. First is
“the story of ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin,’ in which all the
rats, unfortunately, are led away to their doom.” Next is The Wind in the Willows, and the Harry
Potter books. She says that Oscar
Wilde mentions a rat in a fairy tale in his book The Devoted Friend. And
finally she recommends The Boy, the Rat,
and the Butterfly, by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers. All these books actually exist!
It’s
obvious that both the author and illustrator are familiar with rats and some of
their behaviors. Walter takes his
name from a book he found in the dump by Sir Walter Scott. Walter felt that this author was
obviously an important man because his books were bound in leather. “Walter ate most of the leather,
but left the pages intact.”
Once settled in Miss Pomeroy’s house, Walter did most of his
reading at night by candlelight, “though he had an unfortunate tendency
to nibble on the candles….”
However,
there are two statements in the book that I disagree with. At one point the book says, “Rats
are not good climbers.” And
Walter says that he had always been kind and considerate and can remember
committing only one crime.
“In a moment of hunger and confusion he had eaten two of his
offspring, but he had been only eight months old at the time—a young,
impetuous rat—and he had never done it again.” It is unlikely in the extreme that any rat
would eat his own offspring. As the
main theme of this book seems to be to present rats in a positive light, I
can’t figure out why the author would have included this.
Most
of the illustrations are fairly realistic and captivating, although
Walter’s tail is often too long and thin. It also bothered me that Walter’s
eyes were drawn light-colored (the illustrations are in black and white).
In some pictures it makes it look like Walter has cataracts. Maybe the artist thought it would be
easier to give Walter personality or a more human look that way.
Overlooking
the few flaws, this is a very enjoyable book with a touching story. It would be a good addition to any rat
lover’s library.
Book Review: Rosie’s
Birthday Rat
(This
review appeared in the February 1999 issue of the Rat Report.)
Published
in 1996 by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., this is a delightful
book with scenes that will be familiar to any rat lover. The author, Linda Glaser, is a rat
lover, and currently has a rat named Sunny. The illustrator, Nancy Poydar, must be a rat lover too since she has drawn
The
story begins when Rosie announces that the only gift she wants for her birthday
is a rat. Rosie’s mother
strongly objects, and presents all sorts of reasons why she doesn’t want
a rat in the house. One of these
reasons is that the family already has a cat. But Rosie successfully counters all her
mother’s arguments, and gets her mother to agree.
They
go to a snake store, where Rosie’s teacher got a rat, and in choosing a rat, Rosie helps convince the clerk that rats make good
pets.
The
next morning Rosie is faced with a tragedy.
The
only thing that would have made this book better is if it had mentioned that
it’s good to have more than one rat.
While it’s perfectly reasonable that Rosie would ask for—and
convince her mother to let her have—just one rat, Rosie said, “We
had a rat in my kindergarten. We
had a rat in my first grade. Now we
have a rat in my second grade.”
Rosie could have just as easily said, “We had two
rats....” But other than this
point, I highly recommend this charming story.
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